


Day 20 - Belphegor

by Shardinian



Series: Shardinian (Mishka)'s OBEYMEmber! [21]
Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:21:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27642689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shardinian/pseuds/Shardinian
Series: Shardinian (Mishka)'s OBEYMEmber! [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993873
Comments: 6
Kudos: 44





	Day 20 - Belphegor

_The stars were so close he could touch them. Belphie pushed a low hanging pine branch out of the way and plucked a star from the sky._

_It shone even more beautifully in his hand than it ever had in the heavens._

_The star curiously explored its new home, rolling this way and that; Belphie turned his hand upside-down, then right-side-up again, so it could wander without fear of falling into the ocean at his feet._

_The water lapped at his toes, filling the quiet night with the soothing sound of bubbling froth._

_The star spread tiny, translucent wings, and buzzed back into the sky._

_“Dilly? Is that you?”_

_Only one person had ever called him that._

_“…Lilith?”_

_With a smile so wide and unfamiliar that it made his cheeks ache, Belphie spun around and swept his giggling sister into his arms. “Where have you been? Michael will have a fit if he finds out you've been sneaking down to the human world again. Come on. Let's go home.”_

_“Awww. Do we have to?” She stepped out of his embrace, crossed her arms over her chest and pretended to pout. Her ocean blue eyes, however, were sparkling playfully. “Can't we stay just a little bit longer? Pleeeeease, Dilly?” Before he could answer, she snatched his hand and tugged. “Come on! There's something amazing I want to show you!”_

_Belphie sighed, and relented. He always did. “Fine. But if Michael gets mad, I'm not going to stick up for you.”_

_Except that he would, and they both knew it._

_“If Lucifer gets mad, you mean. He's the one in charge now, isn't he?”_

_“Oh. Right. I guess he is. Don't say his name, though. He's been a real asshole lately.”_

_Lilith stuck out her tongue and giggled. “Lucifer Lucifer Lucifer!”_

_(Lucifer! LUCIFER! What the hell are you doing?! You… you can't leave me in here!)_

_His hands hurt. Belphie frowned, and looked down._

_The skin on the tips of his fingers had been shredded away. His claws were chipped, cracked, and broken. Blood was trickling down his palms._

_(clawing at the attic door, I remember clawing at the)_

_Lilith squeezed his hand, and it didn't hurt anymore. “What's the matter, silly Dilly? You drifted off on me there!”_

_“Huh? I did?”_

_Her giggle was wind chimes on a still winter's morning. “It's ok. We can talk about something else. There's so much I've wanted to ask you! Like… ooh! What's it like being a demon?”_

_(Huh? Where… where am I? What happened to my wings…?)_

_“It's alright, I guess. There aren't as many rules down there.”_

_“So you get to do whatever you want? Stay up as late as you want, eat ice cream for dinner, listen to rock music… That sounds like so much fun!”_

_“Yeah. It's hard to really enjoy any it, though. I'm so tired all the time. Even when I get excited to do something, I usually fall asleep half-way through.” Belphegor sighed the empty sigh of one who's been disappointed so many times that it doesn't even hurt anymore. “I miss out on everything that used to make me happy.”_

_“Well, you're not sleepy now, are you?”_

_He glanced down and smiled. “No. But even if I was, I'd never let myself fall asleep. I wouldn’t want to miss even a second with you.” He kissed the top of her head, then took his first good look at her… and frowned. “You've been spending too much time in the human world; you're starting to look more human than angel. Whatever you wanted to show me can wait. I should probably take you home.”_

_Lilith's eyes softened. This was always the hardest part. “Oh, Belphie,” she sighed. “I can't go back home with you. You live in the Devildom, remember?”_

_They were walking through a vast, dark forest. A dead firefly drifted in front of his eyes, still faintly glowing, and slowly fell to the earth._

_“Of course I remember. But that's no excuse for…”_

_He frowned._

_Something didn't feel right._

_Thousands of tiny, weightless corpses were raining from the forest canopy. They whispered as they fell, and crunched under his feet once they'd fallen._

_“I can't go back to the Celestial Realm, either,” she continued quietly. “There's too much fighting up there.”_

_(Belphie! Get down!)_

_A lightning bolt cracked out of the empty sky and slammed into the tallest tree. It erupted in violet fire, and furiously burned._

_The fireflies were the stars, pouring out of the heavens. He tried to catch one, suddenly desperate to save even just one, but it slipped between his fingers, and he never saw where it landed._

_(Beel blamed himself, but it was never his fault)_

_Not that it mattered._

_(I was closer than she was)_

_It was already dead._

_(LILITH, LOOK OUT)_

_Belphie staggered, and clutched a hand to his heart. “No…” He looked at his little sister, youthful and so overflowing with all the joy he'd forgotten how to feel, and wiped away a lonely tear. “Lilith. …You're dead. And I'm… I’m just dreaming all this, aren't I?”_

_“Of course you're dreaming, silly Dilly. Everything's italicized, isn't it?”_

_“Huh?”_

_“Nevermind,” she giggled. “Now come here, there's still something I want to show you.” She reached for his hand, but he frowned and snatched it away._

_“You're not real.”_

_“Oh, come now. I said you were dreaming.” She winked at him. “I never said I wasn't real.” She held out her hand, and waited._

_Now that he knew he was dreaming, Belphie willed away the fireflies, and the forest, and the stars, until all that was left…_

_…was Lilith._

_He took her hand, small and warm and soft, closed his mournful eyes…_

_…and tried to will her away, too._

_“Belphegor! Knock that off, you pesky demon!” She giggled and playfully slapped his hand. “What would Beel say if he knew you were trying to disappear your own baby sister?”_

_He opened his eyes, and tried on the faintest ghost of a sad smile. “I'm sorry. I'm glad you didn't disappear.” He pulled her into his arms, and they held each other close; the only two people, the only two things at all, in an endless white space. “I miss you so much,” he whispered. “I think about you every day.”_

_“I know you do. Every time you think of me, I hear it.”_

_“…I love you, Lilith.”_

_“I love you too, big brother.” She kissed his cheek, and tugged at his hand. “NOW can we go see my miracle?”_

_Belphie chuckled as she led him down a quiet, torchlit street. “Oh, so it’s a miracle now, is it?”_

_“Just wait and see!”_

_With every step, the town aged around them. Torches became streetlights. Cobblestone became pavement. Quaint, thatched houses grew into skyscrapers, until they were walking, hand-in-hand, through a busy, empty city._

_Lilith stopped at a house on the edge of the city, and put a finger to her lips. “Shhhh.” She stepped through the wall, and Belphie followed._

_“See?” she whispered. “I told you it was a miracle.”_

_Inside the little bedroom, all painted pink, a mobile was slowly turning above a cradle in the corner, playing the softest tinkling lullaby._

_He crept up to the cradle, and looked._

_The tiny baby, swaddled tight and warm, looked back, wide-eyed and curious._

_It had hair like golden strawberries, sapphire eyes, the face of an angel, and didn't care at all that it was searching the eyes of a demon._

_“…it's beautiful.”_

_Lilith punched him in the arm. “’She’, you big meanie, not ‘it’. She's my great, great, great, great, great… you get the picture… grand-daughter.”_

_Belphie smiled. “She has your eyes.”_

_“I thought so too. Of course, she's much older now,” Lilith smiled, as she traced a finger gently down the baby's cheek. “Look out for her, ok? Like you always looked out for me.”_

“Belphie?”

_Belphie looked around the room. “Lilith? Did you say something?”_

“Belphie, wake up. I’ve brought your dinner, but it's already going cold.”

_“Lucifer,” Belphie gasped. “No… oh, no, not now…”_

_The room was shimmering, the way hot air dances above summer asphalt. The cradle was already gone, though he could still hear the mobile's tinkling lullaby._

_He’d already forgotten her face._

_He clutched at Lilith's hand…_

_...but passed right through._

_“No… No… Lilith, don't go! Please, don’t go! I… I don't want to lose you again!”_

_“You never lost me at all.”_

_“Please, I… I don't want to go back! Lucifer's keeping me prisoner, and…”_

_The weight of everything hit him at once, and his eyes welled with desperate tears._

_“…and I'm so lonely,” he whispered. “I miss Beel, and you, and everyone… Lilith, please don't make me go back; let me stay here, asleep with you, forever…”_

_“You don't really want that. You said it yourself: when you sleep, you miss out on all the things that make you happy. Go be happy, Belphie. I'll always be here when you get back.”_

_“Nothing makes me happy anymore,” he finally admitted, if only in his dreams, “…except for you. You're the only good thing I have left.”_

_The last thing he saw was her beautiful smile._

_“No… No! You can't go! You don't understand… I never remember my dreams, and I… Lilith? Lilith?! If I wake up now, I won't remember any of this! Please don't leave me! I… I don't want to forget you!”_

_“Silly Dilly,” she whispered, in the voice of an angel, “you always forget this dream. But you've never forgotten me.”_


End file.
